Refection8

What is the purpose of school? Is the question many parents, teachers, and students are asking. Today some would believe that school is a place of social events but the main purpose is education. School is an institution of learning and a place of hope for a better economy. The economy is based on an educated workforce. “A nation at risk” was a report in 1983, from the National Commission on Excellence in Education that basically gave Americans the sad reality of our country. The report talked about the declining test scores, the weak performance of United States students compared with students in other industrialized nations. It emphasized the fear of the United States losing its ground economically to other countries and the high number of functionally illiterate Americans. Educational reform became the national spotlight which put an extreme pressure on the school system. The reform produced three waves of education that impacted our society. The first wave, which was the strongest, was the increased testing for both teachers and students. Teachers now have to go through more rigorous standards before entering the teaching profession. Most states increased course requirements for graduation and required more testing which is why we have the FCAT today. This wave purpose was to set higher standards for both teachers and students. The second wave of reform was the establishment of developing a national policy for high schools. In 1892, the National Education Association created the Committee of Ten. This committee included professors and college presidents who wanted to change the high school curriculum so that the transition into college would be easier. At that time many students were not going to college so they reformed the committee and added members like, education professors, high school principals, the U.S. Commissioner of Education, and others whose focus was not only on the transition to college but on preparing students for a adult role in society. At that time, students were living in an industrial democracy so the committee wanted to prepare them for the future. The last wave of reform was the Charter School and School Voucher movement. This movement provides parents and teachers alternatives to the existing public school establishment. Charter schools, also called the “school choice movement” started in the early 1990s in Minnesota and since then have launch all over the United States. According to our textbook, a charter school has legal permission from a local or state board to operate a school, usually for a fixed period of time with the right to renew. If the plan is accepted the state would provide you, the owner of the school, with a certain amount of money for each student enrolled. Charter schools are exempt from most state and local regulations and swap these regulations for the freedom and the promise that they will be effective and their students will succeed. Because a charter school can be shut down if it doesn’t meet expectations, the curriculum is very strict. The first publicly financed voucher program was in 1990 in Milwaukee. This program provided students with $3,000 to attended nonsectarian private schools and then in 1995 it was amended to allow students to attend religious schools. Before the amendment in 1995, many private schools were thrilled about the plan but then the addition of the religious schools began uproar. Many students were choosing the religious private school because for one, most private schools were in fact religious schools and secondly most religious schools have a low tuition rate. The voucher was mainly tax payer money so many felt that the voucher was against the First Amendment of the Constitution. In 1971 Lemon v. Kurtzman the Supreme Court constructed clear walls of using public funds to support religious education. First the fund must have a secular purpose, second the fund must not primarily advance or prohibit religion and last the fund must not result in excessive government entanglement with religion. I believe that the first wave is so dominant because America believes that they are always in a competition and always want to be the best.

Refection7

Most children idolized their parents or the adult figure in the household and the children of ancient Egypt were no different. In ancient Egypt most children learned their eventual trade or occupation of the adult behavior from their father or a tutor. Just as in modern time, children learned the skills, moral attitudes, and views of life. During the ancient civilizations, there were three approaches to education. The fist approach was the creation of the “wisdom literature.” Wisdom literature was books of instructions that were addressed by elders of the royal, noble, and scribal. Written in these texts were truth telling and fair dealing which were offered as a social desirable. The elders made it clear that truth telling was more advantageous than lying and injustice. Wisdom of literature was used as teaching tools for schools of scribes. The second approach was vocational training which was apart of scribal and at home teaching. Many young men didn’t have the choice to choose their career path so they had to follow in the family trade or profession. Even the highest office official had their sons followed him for training and at the end of his career it would be passed down to his son. The only person who did not tutor his children was the king. Senenmut, which was the vizier and the royal architect, was the tutors for the king’s children. During this period, these approaches to education were for the young men only. Girls during that time learned how to dance, sing, and manage a household. Because sculptors, artist, and draftsmen had to be literate, a 19th dynasty textbook was created, which is the third approach to education. This book is called Papyrus Anastasi I and arithmetic sums in a military context. Many of these men had to convert texts on papyri and also ostraca into hieroglyphs on temple and tomb walls. In ancient Egypt, during that time, they called physical education the arts of war which included riding a horse, the use of weapons, and guiding a chariot. Students had to recite their texts aloud until they new it by memory. There was no set length or number of years for education. There is no evidence of any time of formal schools in the old kingdom but the new kingdom had at least two. Mesopotamia is a contemporary civilization with Egyptian civilization. By this time formal education was extended from reading, writing, and religion to higher learning in medicine, law, and astrology. Its aim was to train scribes and priests of the upper class youths. The priests dominated the intellectual and educational domain just like in Egypt. Activity and training would be held in the library which is located in the temple. Oral repetition, individual instructions, copying of models, and memorization was the methods of teaching and learning. Apprenticeship can be traced back to Hammurabi, a king of Babylon. He written the earliest law called the code of Hammurabi. These laws were covered in a code because of its importance. The code states that an apprentice should be treated as a adopted son. Temple schools was basically a tomb were children would go to learn cuneiform which was difficult to learn. They would used tablets made out of clay as a textbook. The children began making single wedges in different position and eventually went on to groups of wedges. The first chapters of many Sumerian works were handed down from tablets by students. Many children also studied arithmetic which they based their number system on ten, and multiplied ten by six to get the next unit. After the Sumerians learned how to write and figure, they kept documents about everything which allowed them to have a strong sense of private property.

Renae Wright Bio

My name is Renae Wright and I am currently a student at Miami Dade College. I was born in Miami Florida with a Caribbean background. My parents and siblings are from Westemoreland Jamaica and I have a lovely 2 year old daughter. I started me education journey at Bethune University where I received a music scholarship and majored in Music Technology. After the death of my father I later moved back home to be with my mom. I then transferred to Florida Memorial University to continue my education. At FMC I majored in Popular Music since they didn’t have a Music technology program. During that period, I started to teach kids Piano on the weekend which I started to enjoy. I later fell in love with teaching and counseling kids with disables. I then decided to attended Miami Dade college to further my goals into becoming a special education teacher. I still plan on obtain my music degree and include it in my curriculum in helping my student. I found out the most special education kids can really learn the curriculum but it’s just the way you teach them. After this semester at Miami Dade College, I intend on transferring to FIU and receiving a bachelor’s degree in Education. I then plan on moving to New York City to teach and attend a university to obtain my Masters degree. I would love to obtain a PHD in Education and become a college professor later on in my career. I must say that I can enjoy my education so far at Miami Dade College.

Renae Wright Reflection 3

When I think of the word “multicultural,” I began to think about a place with diversity. Multicultural is a place with many different types of cultures and different interests. The elementary school I attended, when I was younger, was considered a multicultural to me. My first grade teacher was Haitian and many of my friends were Jamaican, Spanish, American, and/or Haitian. Even though the majority of the population, in the school, was Haitian, we still had diversity. The school would put on an event to share the different types of cultures in our community. We would also go on field trip to downtown Miami whenever they have there cultural festival. Even though in many areas we have overcome the fight of racism, we still other battles to fight. According to our text book, Multicultural education has expanded to confronting injustices based on gender, disability, social class, sexual orientation, and yes racism. In the old days we use to fight for desegregation so that our schools could be multicultural. I would consider my elementary school experience to indicative of the contribution approach. This particular approach is considered multicultural education in which the studies of ethnic heroes are included into the curriculum. I remember my teacher use to teach us the different leaders and there cultures especially during the month it was recognized on. We would learn different songs and even taste the different dishes. If I could go back to elementary school, I would love if my teacher would teach with the transformation approach. In this approach the curriculum is changed and students are taught to view events and issues from diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives. I believe many students suffer from isolation and behavior problems because they weren’t taught that is was ok to view and respect other cultures. We should be taught, from an early age, that even though I may not be from Africa, I can still research and maybe find something I can relate too. Students should be able view different events and issues from different cultures, get an understanding from it and have a respect for it. I would be sure to incorporate this approach to my curriculum when I become a teacher.

Renae Wright Reflection 1

Most people begin to think about Universities, colleges, and degree programs when they see or hear about a teacher preparation program. Teacher preparation programs prepare an individual to teach in a particular subject in a classroom setting. In colonial times teachers didn’t receive a formal preparation. During that period teaching was viewed as a temporary job and not as a career. Most elementary teachers were teenagers who learned their craft by watching master teachers and most of them would have never attended a secondary school. A few of the secondary level teachers had some type of education on the college level but not many. Reverend Samuel Hall established a school called Normal School in 1823. This particular school was considered a private institution that was located in Concord, Vermont and it provided elementary school graduates with formal teaching skills training. In 1839 Horace Mann followed Reverend Hall and established the first Normal School in Lexington Massachusetts. Teaching in this period was considered a female occupation, so by 1920’s a teacher contract was generated to provide the rules and regulations of being a teacher. One rule, in particular that shocked me was that a teacher could not be married and could not keep company with men. Also in that period, teachers were being paid $75 dollars a month which attracted more females to attend school. By the 20th century more students enrolled in elementary school which caused a higher demand for teachers. As the demand grew higher, so did the normal schools which later change from a two years institution to a four year program and by then they were considered a college. Education began to spiral in the early 1980’s as a result a lot of controversy reform reports on professionalism and teacher preparation began to emerge. One group named the “Holmes Group” released a report titled “Tomorrow’s teacher” which basically states that the standards for teachers needed to raise. They believed that the undergraduate education programs needed to be replaced with graduated programs, which means an individual should only be able to teach if they hold a Masters degree in education. Some states have implemented this rule while some prefers there educators to have a masters but it is not mandatory. In today’s society there are two ways to approach a career in teaching. There is the traditional teachers program, which is highly recommended, where you enter into a four year program and there is the “alternative teacher programs.” The alternative teachers program is a sort of on-the-job training for an individual who wants to become a teacher but didn’t go to school for it. One of the alternative programs is Teach for America (TFA), which was created by Wendy Kopp a college student in 1990 at Princeton. The TFA would recruit individuals who wants to make a difference in their community, to teach in a under resource and rural school for two years. These individuals would later be called corp members and like many, drop out of the program before it’s completed. Even though these students had the desire to teach and help there community, to learn under those condition would be very stressful. To me, the best way to be fully prepared to become an educator in a classroom setting is through a traditional program.

BIO

My name is Renae Wright and I am currently a student at Miami Dade College. I was born in Miami Florida but my background is Caribbean. My parents and siblings are from Westemoreland Jamaica and I have a lovely 2 year old daughter. I have attended Bethune University and Florida Memorial University before attending Miami Dade College. I have studied music for the past 15 years and decided to major in it. I later then fell in love with children and teaching. I began to help children and teenagers with learning disabilities which I fell in love with. I later then decided to double major in Music and Special Education to pursue my dreams and to do what I love the most.